Bovill, ID

At the Rural Schools Trust conference in Alabama this spring, Sabrina Myers and Erin Stevenson worked with rural community folks from all over the country to form the Rural Schools in Challenging Circumstances group to continue the work begun at the conference and to provide support and networking. Sabrina and Erin also helped form a subcommittee of that group, the Student Success Committee. Sabrina is chairing this subcommittee and its goal is to define what success is in rural communities (it is not necessarily the same as in urban schools) and to determine what is needed to see that success occur. The committee is made up of rural community representatives from different states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Washington D.C.

Erin and Sabrina reported what they learned to the Horizons steering committee. This conference was a great opportunity for Bovill - Let’s support Sabrina and Erin in the their continuing efforts!

Karen Eggers and the Community Pride action team came up with a great approach to community action: in their meetings, they each “pick a part” to play in the actions they want to accomplish rather than “picking apart” each other and the community.

This is a wonderful way to reinforce the importance and power of cooperative teamwork! And this also reminds us of the power of positive thinking and constructive work.

We are creating more opportunitiesfor education and skill building for our community members. We have arranged to have computer classes at the community center starting in January.
Bovillcommunity members have attended workshops: the “So you want to start a nonprofit?” workshop and a grant writing workshop.
On Febuary 28th, in cooperation with Elks, we will have an alcohol awareness speaker.

The Community Pride action team hopes in the next 2-3 years to create some beautiful areas in town, places where people can enjoy trees and flowers and sit and relax on community benches. Next summer they hope to partner with the city to do some planting and landscaping along new sidewalks. They have worked with BIG (The nonprofit Bovill Improvement Group) about planting trees. The Community Pride team acquired permission from landowners and from the city (they discussed it with mayor) for improvements. We want people to take pride in our town by creating a more beautiful Bovill. We want people to see and show others what we can accomplish!

Gary and Karen Eggers, Georgia Hunter, and Paula Winter
Fall 2007

Karen and Gary Eggers, Georgia Hunter, and Tara Jones
Fall 2007

· Erin Stevenson, Hope Hobbs, Shirley Easterday, Sabrina Myers, and others have all taken on leadership roles for the first time as part of the Horizons program and they are learning a lot.

· Hope Hobbs was not getting anywhere for four years but now, through Horizons meetings and Horizon’s sponsored workshops, she has found out where to seek resources, how to network, and how to build her skills. She is currently learning how to create a business plan for a craft business that has been sitting on the back burner for many years. She has learned to constantly ask questions and seek solutions. Keep it up Hope!

· Bovill Horizons is helping build leadership in our community, even beyond the Horizons program. For example, Shirley Easterday has been inspired by her involvement in Horizon’s Leadership Plenty and by what she’s learned serving as a Horizons Community Builder to become involved in community government. She ran for Bovill city council (something she had never tried before!) She lost to the incumbent but got one third of the votes. Congrats for putting yourself out there Shirley!

. Sabrina Myers, who is fairly new to Horizons, recently agreed to serve as a co-chair of the steering committee. Thanks Sabrina!

· We can continue to improve the organization and structure of our efforts. Erin Stevenson has enjoyed learning leadership skills, such as getting things organized. She is learning how to organize steering committee meetings, including taking important steps such as calling the treasurer and others ahead of time to set the agenda and make sure they are ready to participate. Thanks Erin!